Mailing device for newspapers



(No Model.)

L. P. BARDWELL. MAILING DEVICE FOR NEWSPAPERS, &c.

Patented Sept. 3, 1889.

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UNITED STATES PATENT ()FFICE.

LUCIAN P. BARDVVELL, OF PRATT, KANSAS.

MAILING DEVICE FOR NEWSPAPERS .800.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 410,395, dated September 3, 1889. Application filed July 17, 1888. Serial No. 280,193. (No model.)

To alt whom it may concern-.-

Be it known that I, LUCIAN P. BARDWELL, of Pratt, in the county of Pratt and State of Kansas, have invented a new and Improved Newspaper-Mailing Device, also applicable to other purposes, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention, while applicable to various purposes or uses, some of which will be hereinafter named, consists in a device of novel character and construction for affixing name or address and other slips onto various surfaces or articles, substantially as hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claims.

The device may either be operated by hand direct or by power through suitable mechanism; but it will suffice here to describe it as a hand-tool, and mainly to refer to it as a hand mailing device for newspapers, books, pamphlets, magazines, and other articles to be sent by mail or to be otherwise delivered to a given address or party by name.

Referenceis to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 represents a side elevation of a hand mailing device suitable for newspapers and other articles and embodying my invention. Fig.2 is a mainly central transverse vertical section of the same. Fig. 3 is an under view thereof, and Fig. 4 is a side view of a pad thatmay be used in connection with the device.

The device, according to the construction shown in the drawings, has its frame composed of a cross-piece A, an attached handle 13, and lower attached slip holders and guides C '0, arranged to project downward in parallel relation with each other and recessed on their inner faces, also closed on their bottoms to carry a series of name or address slips I), mounted one upon the other, and which are supposed to have the names and addresses, or either, of the parties to whom the mailed matter is to be sent or delivered on their upper faces. The under faces of these slips Z2 may either be coated with any suit-able adhesive material that on being dampened will cause them to stick, or they may be left bare and the adhesive material afterward applied, as hereinafter described.

Said slips are held firmly packed together in the recessed guides and holders by means of a follower D, which may be held down by weight or by spring-pressure-.-as, for instance, by one or more springs S around or connected with a sliding guide-rod E, which has a suitable handle E, and with the crosspiece A.

'By means of this device any number of slips?) of paper with the names and addresses, or either, printed on them are held firmly together in the recessed guides and holders 0 O by the spring or yielding follower D until placed on the papers, books, magazines, or other articles designed to receive them. The slips 1) may either be previously prepared with adhesive material on their under surfaces or have the adhesive material applied to them in succession at the time of use, and they are transferred one by one to the papers or other articles intended to receive them by bringing down the device after the manner of an ordinary stamping contrivance onto the paper or article. The raising of the rod E by means of its handle releases the pressure of the lower spring and the follower, which holds the slips down at their ends against the bottoms of the guides and holders 0 O, and causes the suction or adhesiveness of the paste, gum, dextrine, glue, or other material that is on the slips to make the bottom slip of the pile hold onto the paper or article it is applied to, and upon raising the whole device by means of its handle B such bottom slip will be left secured to its place upon the paper or article, while the remaining slips will be carried up away from it and subjected to pressure, as before, to keep them in place ready for use in succession as required. Each slip as it is made to adhere to the paper or article to which it is applied may be smoothed down by the left or disengaged hand of the operator or by other papers laid or piled in succession one upon the other having the slips attached. When the slips 1) are made of paper having the gum or adhesive material already applied and allowed to dry upon them, then the lowermost slip in succession in the series may be dampened before applying it to the paper or article by bringing it down while in its holder upon a pad G, dampened with water. When said slips, however, are made of non-adhesive or ungummed paper, the pad G, which may be made of two or three thicknesses of cloth, may have spread upon it with a brush the adhesive material in amoist state, and the device holding the strips be brought down on it to apply the adhesive material to each lowermost slip in succession before transferring it to the paper or article designed to receive it.

The device beinga simple and inexpensive one, many of such devices may be used at the same time, thus enabling the mailing or addressing of large editionsof papers in a short time, and this by boys and girls or other unskilled labor. Papers and other printed matter can be mailed in country offices as fast as they are printed by stamping each sheet as it is dropped by the fly of the press, and

each sheet will press down the preceding slip.

The device will also save the use of expensive wrappers in mailing what publishers 'call the single wrappers. Old newspapers and other printed matter can be used for the wrappers.

It should be observed that when ungum med slips are used the exterior bottom surfaces of the slip guides or holders C C also receive the paste or adhesive material and transfer it to the paper or article to which the device is applied, and when the device is removed the slip is left pasted, except at its ends, to the paper or article, which ends may be smoothed down by the disengaged hand of the operator or made to adhere by the weight thereon of succeeding papers or articles, as hereinbefore stated.

To secure perfection in the working of the device, the following points are worthy of notice: First, the slips of paper I) should not make a binding or tight fit in the device either sidewise or endwise; second, the spring or pressure applied to the device should be of adequate strength; 'third, the paste or adhesive material used on the slips should be very sticky or adhesive and not be spread too thickly on the surface or pad from which it is taken; fourth, the paper composing the slips should not be very thick or stiff. Printpaper or light-weight flats I find best. Again, ordinary good flour paste answers every purpose, only addinga little alum to keep it from souring and a little powdered rosin dissolved in hot water before putting in the flour to make it of the proper stickiness or adhesiveness.

Not only may this device be used for putting the printed or address slips on newspapers, books, pamphlets, magazines, and other like articles, but also for pasting advertising slips on letters, circulars, envelopes, and other written or printed matter, and for securing postage-stamps on letters or circulars, likewise for pasting advertisements upon walls, fences, bulletin-boards, and other surfaces.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a device for applying addressed slips to newspapers and the like, the combination of an apertured bar, slip-holders projecting downwardly from the bar and having recessed inner faces and closed ends, a rod working in the aperture of the said bar, a follower on the lower end of the said rod and working in the recesses of the holders, and a spring for pressing the follower downward, substantially as described.

2. The herein-described device for applying addressed slips to newspapers and the like, consisting of the apertured bar A, provided with the handle B, the slip-holders O, secured to the bar and having recessed inner faces and closed ends, the rod E, working in the aperture of the bar and provided with the handle E on its upper end and the follower D on its lower end, and the springs S, surrounding the rod between the handle E and bar and said bar and follower, as specified.

3. The within-described hand mailing device, consisting of a cross-piece or body A, the attached slip holders and guides C C, recessed on their inner faces and having closed outer or lower ends, the follower D, with its guide-rod E, onelor more springs S, operating to force said follower outward, and the handle B, for use substantially as specified.

LUCIAN P. BARDWELL. Witnesses:

JAMES A. BRYAN, WILLIAM BARRETT 

